Systems Leadership: a qualitative systematic review of advice for policymakers

'Systems leadership' research rejects the idea that complex policy problems can be solved by a few heroic leaders in the centre of government or at the top of organisations. Many people need to contribute to systems leadership by collaborating to harness the skills of actors across government and outside of government. At times, this proposition is vague and it is difficult to know who should change or what to do. We searched the academic and grey literature for further advice on how to foster effective systems leadership.

We conducted a qualitative systematic review (2024) of peer reviewed journal articles (Web of Science) and grey literature reports (Policy Commons, Overton). Each text had to inform advice on systems leadership. We used an immersive inductive approach to identify key sources of ideas, highlight common themes, and relate the results to insights from policy theories.

84 texts met the inclusion criteria (39 Web of Science, 34 Policy Commons, 11 Overton), then we included 80 snowballed academic and grey references (total 164). Some relate leadership to complexity theory, but most provide broad accounts of systems leadership that emphasise decentralisation and collaboration. These accounts describe high aspirations and essential skills but limited evidence from activity. Nevertheless, this literature helps us produce a coherent synthesis of common insights and advice on how to foster systems leadership.

We identify key features of systems leadership: reject heroic top-down leadership and central control in favour of collaboration across boundaries; develop attributes (e.g. humility), mindsets (e.g. big picture), and skills (e.g. facilitation) to act in complex systems (albeit without a common view on what a complex system is); and, seek organisational and political support for this approach. Some accounts identify barriers to systems leadership and negative experiences, while others redefine such obstacles as learning opportunities.